Robert Colvile is a writer and senior comment editor at the Telegraph, who cares more about politics and policy than is probably healthy - for his newest pieces, please see here. He tweets as @rcolvile.

David Cameron channels Chelsea for a great escape of his own

It was Chelsea vs Barcelona all over again at Prime Minister's Questions. Ed Miliband had an open goal, his opponent down a man, his defence in tatters – and yet David Cameron not only came through unscathed, but emerged victorious.

You could tell it wasn't going well for Ed because he got that whiny, it's-so-unfair tone to his voice – the one he gets when Cameron pulls a particularly audacious evasion (such as not answering a question on Jeremy Hunt, to continue counter-attacking Labour over its economic legacy), and only Ed seems to care.

It was an encounter that set Cameron up to be relaxed, confident and surprisingly in command for the rest of PMQs (helped by even more butterballs than usual from his own side). "Well read," he said patronisingly to a Labour MP who delivered an obviously planted question about the double-dip recession. He even got away with offering Jeremy Hunt his full support – although we'll see in the post-PMQs debate whether the Culture Secretary can do as well as his boss when it comes to dodging the flak.

It's no exaggeration that this is an awful, awful week for the Prime Minister. Everything seems to be going wrong at once, and worse, it's proving impossible to put a lid on any of these separate crises, or to keep them coming. But today's PMQs reminded us that for all the criticisms of his management style, David Cameron remains a political thoroughbred. And that he's never better than when his back's against the wall.